February 4, 2016 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Join the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies in its Brazil Brown Bag Seminar Series. The lecture, entitled “Political Parties and Social Movements in Brazil after the Protests of June 2013” will be given by Pablo Ortellado.

Since the end of the military rule in Brazil, social movements have started a process of institutionalization which resulted in a very unique model of interaction and coordination between political party and social movements. On the one hand, movements participate very actively in the direction of party life; on the other, State has opened itself up to the collaboration of movements through diverse participatory institutions such as councils, conferences and hearings. This model, constructed in the 1980s and 1990s, began to be questioned when new social movements that have arisen in the 2000s openly revolted against it. Now that the protests of June 2013 have demonstrated the growing mismatch, Brazilian democracy needs to find a new democratic arrangement to deal with movements that are both autonomous and antagonistic to state and party institutions. The lessons from the Brazilian experience may also serve other countries such as Spain, that are trying to renew the coordination standards between political parties and social movements.

Pablo Ortellado holds a PhD in Philosophy and is a Public Policy professor at the University of São Paulo. He co-authored two books on contemporary social movements in Brazil: Estamos vencendo: resistência global no Brasil (Conrad, 2005) and Vinte centavos: a luta contra o aumento (Veneta, 2013) and is currently working on a new book on the relations between contemporary social movements and state institutions.